Packet networks are increasingly being used for voice communications. The emergence of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Voice Over Packet (VOP) technologies have promoted development of various end point devices, such as packet telephones capable of communicating voice information over a packet network. Such end point devices, however, are typically made by different phone vendors to work with a specific IP telephony phone solution, which may include proprietary hardware platforms, software applications and communications protocols. Furthermore, software applications have a much shorter development cycle than hardware platforms. As a result, many end point devices are typically updated with different versions of software applications over time even though the underlying hardware platform remains the same. The software updates, however, often need to be individually and manually performed due to the wide variety of phone vendors and end point devices, as well as the tight integration between a given IP telephony solution and the end point device. Such manual provisioning may increase the total cost of ownership dramatically. Consequently, there may be substantial need for improvements in software update techniques to solve these and other problems.